Last Updated on December 2, 2021 at 4:06 pm
Cricket runs in veins of majority of Indians and any news related to selection of someone in the Indian team is taken with pride and gets a lot of traction.
Similar happened to the news of Amaan Zari, a youth who will play a cricket tournament in Dubai. A large number of media houses including regional and national stated that Amaan Zari has been selected in the national U-19 Indian team.
Prominent Kashmir daily Greater Kashmir claimed, “Rajouri boy Amaan Zari finds place in National U-19 cricket team”. Jammu based popular newspaper Daily Excelsior stated, “Amaan Zari selected for India U/19 cricket team”.
So much so even national television Aaj Tak played up the story after LG of J&K Manoj Sinha congratulated Amaan for his selection in “U-19 cricket team”.
The story went viral and Amaaz Zari who is a resident of Rajouri also interacted with media. He however never claimed that he has been selected in the Indian national team and it was only the media organizations that peddled the false news of Zari being selected in the U-19 national team.
Fact
When JK Newsline investigated on its own regarding the information whether Amaan Zari has been selected in the Indian national U-19 cricket team or not, we stumbled upon important pieces of information that indicated that he is going to Dubai to play a tournament organized by group of cricket clubs.
Amaaz Zari who is a member of Cricket Academy of Irfan and Yusuf Pathan, Ludhiana is among the 11 players who are going for the the tournament organized by Al Waheed and Bataya Club Dubai among others. An advertisement on the Facebook page of the Cricket Academy of Irfan and Yusuf Pathan states that the fee per player for the tournament starts from Rs 89,000.
When JK Newsline contacted the academy, we were told that the each player will be given an opportunity to play 3 one day matches in the tournament to be held in Dubai and the players have to pay for their hotel, food and travel.
We also ran a fact check to know about the official BCCI U-19 team and came to know that BCCI is holding Triangular Series of U-19 cricket from 28th November to 7th December in Kolkata. Name of Amaan Zari does not feature in this official Indian cricket U-19 team.
As per a sponsored report, 4-Nations Cup in Dubai that was scheduled to begin on December 7, has been delayed by 30 days and rescheduled for second week of January 2022.
Conclusion: While Amaan Zari is a promising cricketer from Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, he has not been selected in the national U-19 Indian cricket team as reported by some media organizations. However, it is important to understand that neither Amaan Zari nor the Cricket Academy of Pathans in Ludhiana ever claimed that he has been selected in the Indian team. It was only the false information on social media that news organizations fell for.
